In a nutshell: Many sport builders and publishers have more and more centered on the PC market, recognizing its rising significance. A latest market evaluation highlights the increasing potential of “laptop video games,” providing precious insights into the PC userbase and their preferences. This knowledge paints a clearer image of the evolving gaming panorama and the shifting priorities of the trade.
PC Gamer stories that latest market analysis from evaluation agency Newzoo exhibits that the PC gaming sector stays stronger than ever, surpassing consoles in reputation. Throughout an upcoming GDC keynote, Newzoo Consulting Director Ben Porter will spotlight that the PC gaming base has topped 907 million gamers. Curiously, about 92 % are extra drawn to older titles from a number of years in the past.
In line with PC Gamer’s advance copy of the report, there have been an estimated 873.5 million PC gamers in 2023. This rely grew to 907.5 million in 2024. In the meantime, the console gamers are round 653 million, exhibiting that the grasp race nonetheless deserves its title.
Newzoo extrapolated these figures from an in-depth survey of 73,000 gamers, coupled with player-hours knowledge from over 10,000 video games. As talked about, most PC avid gamers are “closely skewed in the direction of older, dwell service video games” (92 %). Titles six years or older amounted to 67 % of participant hours in 2024, whereas two- to five-year-old video games comprised one other 25 %. Solely eight % of gamers frolicked on video games launched inside the final two years. In style older PC titles embrace:
- Counter-Strike: International Offensive/Counter-Strike 2 (7.1%)
- League of Legends (6.4%)
- Roblox (6.2%)
- Dota 2 (5.8%)
- Fortnite (5.4%).
Given the extremely numerous PC gaming base, the report’s findings are unsurprising. Most of the most anticipated releases are additionally essentially the most demanding, requiring fashionable (and costly) {hardware}. On the identical time, many customers proceed to depend on older programs with much less succesful parts.
The report additionally highlights the recognition of dwell service, free-to-play video games, which usually appeal to a broad viewers with a give attention to producing income via microtransactions or subscriptions. Regardless of the rising variety of challenges inside the live-service mannequin, many sport publishers prioritize these always-on tasks for his or her ongoing monetary potential.
Newzoo will current its findings at GDC on Thursday, providing extra insights into participant engagement, income fashions, and spending habits in 2025. The session is geared toward senior executives and sport trade strategists however will doubtless present precious knowledge for avid gamers and PC fanatics as nicely.
In a nutshell: Many sport builders and publishers have more and more centered on the PC market, recognizing its rising significance. A latest market evaluation highlights the increasing potential of “laptop video games,” providing precious insights into the PC userbase and their preferences. This knowledge paints a clearer image of the evolving gaming panorama and the shifting priorities of the trade.
PC Gamer stories that latest market analysis from evaluation agency Newzoo exhibits that the PC gaming sector stays stronger than ever, surpassing consoles in reputation. Throughout an upcoming GDC keynote, Newzoo Consulting Director Ben Porter will spotlight that the PC gaming base has topped 907 million gamers. Curiously, about 92 % are extra drawn to older titles from a number of years in the past.
In line with PC Gamer’s advance copy of the report, there have been an estimated 873.5 million PC gamers in 2023. This rely grew to 907.5 million in 2024. In the meantime, the console gamers are round 653 million, exhibiting that the grasp race nonetheless deserves its title.
Newzoo extrapolated these figures from an in-depth survey of 73,000 gamers, coupled with player-hours knowledge from over 10,000 video games. As talked about, most PC avid gamers are “closely skewed in the direction of older, dwell service video games” (92 %). Titles six years or older amounted to 67 % of participant hours in 2024, whereas two- to five-year-old video games comprised one other 25 %. Solely eight % of gamers frolicked on video games launched inside the final two years. In style older PC titles embrace:
- Counter-Strike: International Offensive/Counter-Strike 2 (7.1%)
- League of Legends (6.4%)
- Roblox (6.2%)
- Dota 2 (5.8%)
- Fortnite (5.4%).
Given the extremely numerous PC gaming base, the report’s findings are unsurprising. Most of the most anticipated releases are additionally essentially the most demanding, requiring fashionable (and costly) {hardware}. On the identical time, many customers proceed to depend on older programs with much less succesful parts.
The report additionally highlights the recognition of dwell service, free-to-play video games, which usually appeal to a broad viewers with a give attention to producing income via microtransactions or subscriptions. Regardless of the rising variety of challenges inside the live-service mannequin, many sport publishers prioritize these always-on tasks for his or her ongoing monetary potential.
Newzoo will current its findings at GDC on Thursday, providing extra insights into participant engagement, income fashions, and spending habits in 2025. The session is geared toward senior executives and sport trade strategists however will doubtless present precious knowledge for avid gamers and PC fanatics as nicely.
